Play Dates

Today Oliver was a big play date!  In the morning he played with Grandpa for a little bit, then Mommy and Oliver went to Playwerx!  Oliver spent two hours running around having fun!  Mommy went in a few different times, she had to take little breaks.  You get a really good workout in that jungle gym!  

Saying "hi" to Mommy!

Look at that big fan!  (Cool.)

Having fun.  (Big softy.)

We found something that reminded Mommy of a hammock.

Mommy didn't want to get up.  This is Oliver

yelling at her to get up!  She did, eventually.

We found a new to Mommy little cave below.  We just hung out

for a while down in there! Oliver made a cute face in this picture!

Going down a slide! 

Now, does anyone need a Rachel fix?

Mommy and Oliver did, so Oliver got to have another little play date!  Rachel has been walking for a couple of weeks.  She met us at the door in her cute little pink flip flops!  She had a hug and a kiss for Oliver.  She is the sweetest ever!  Mommy also needed a pregnant belly fix.  Aunt Ali is scheduled to deliver on the 16th!  (Wow!  Can't believe she is having another baby!)  Mommy can't wait to have a nephew!  Oliver is excited to have a boy cousin too!

Kiss for Oliver.

Cousins playing!

Ra Ra kissing herself in the mirror.

Rachel likes to wrestle!

Leading us to her princess castle!  Rusty joins the kiddos 

at the end, too cute!

We had a wonderful together day!

Patches

Mommy is thinking about Patches this morning.  It has been two years now since her sweet, fluffy, sassy, sometimes kind of dirty, fat, princess passed away.  Mommy loved her a lot.  Patches loved to go on car rides, sleep with Mommy and her sisters, observe the weird little baby that came along and took away all of Mommy's attention, relax outside in the sun, and sleep.

Missing her a lot today.

Patches all cozy on the couch.

Mommy loves this picture.  Patches always crossed

her paws like that when she was really relaxed and

happy.  We were trying to soak up some Humboldt

sun....(Not the best picture of Mommy, oh well...)  

Missing her tons and tons.

Batiquitos Lagoon

Oliver was very full of energy today!  He played with Grammie in the morning for a little bit, they are working on the Cars sticker collection.  Grammie ordered the rest of the stickers that they needed.  Coolness!

Mommy and Oliver went for a short hike and visited the nature center at the Batiquitos Lagoon in Carlsbad.  We had fun looking at all the animals in the nature center.  (Mommy had a couple things to figure out there.  One thing was she was searching for the name of a plant...)  We will definitely go back to the nature center, there is so much in that little space!  After we hiked up a big hill to see a view of the ocean.  It was a beautiful day.

Neat sign!

On the trail!

Headed to the nature center.

Coolest nature center!

Curious Oliver.

Walking past some animals.

They have so much you can touch there!

Red-tailed hawk.

Holding a turtle shell.

Oliver kept pointing out tracks.

We made our own tracks.  Our feet will probably

smell later because we weren't wearing socks.  Oh well!

The Lagoon.

He led the way to the top!

 The Lagoon, I-5, and the ocean.

Crazy tree roots!

We went down a really steep hill to

get back to the main trail.

Oliver had to scoot down on his bottom.  It was

kind of cute!

Rock Turtle.

A Bench.  (It would be nice to sit there and birdwatch.)

But we were on the go today!

Another bench.

Little Hiker.

Prickly Pear Cactus.

Mommy likes this plant that grows

on other plants like hair.

Wheatgrass on Saturday?  (Mommy needs it.)

The other view.  (Yums.)

Oliver took a nice nap this afternoon.  

Does anybody need a Zoe fix?

Mommy and Oliver did.  We got to watch her this evening!  She is the most scrumptious little baby ever!

She loved Oliver's bucket of cars!

Zoe eating.

She fell asleep on Mommy and Oliver kept

 giving her kisses, sweetness.

Boogers and Coins

Fun Friday at home with the daycare babies and Oliver!  Oliver likes to test Mommy.  He usually doesn't test her patience with his boogers though.  He was watching a morning cartoon while Mommy was taking care of the babies, she came into the family room and he had the biggest, grossest, greenest booger on his foot!  He thought it was just so so so funny.  Than he took the booger off his foot and put it on the blanket.  Exactly why Mommy got that blanket, to protect the couch from gross toddlerness.  (Talk about annoying, this is exactly why Mommy needs her very own chair!)  Mommy didn't take a picture of the booger.  Maybe next time.

We had a nice rest of the day together.  Happy Friday!

Booger on his foot.

Putting the bogger on the blanket.

Mommy grabbed his foot to take a picture of it.  No

trace of booger slime.

At least he was working on our coin collection later.

(Mommy still likes to collect coins.)  Oliver is learning

a lot about our quarter collection.

Words

Mommy loves words.  (Obviously.)  Oliver loves to talk, most of the time loves to listen to stories- if he can sit still, and he is starting to love words too!  When Mommy picked him up at school today he was playing alphabet bingo.  He couldn't really concentrate because Mommy and one of our babies were watching him, but he was so cute sitting there with his letters.

We had a great rest of the day together, we stopped to play at the Grape slide and in the evening two of our daycare kiddos came for the evening.  Everyone is peacefully sleeping now.  Mommy likes the quiet!

Oliver trying to focus on letter bingo.

Cuteness!

Grapes and O in the distance.

Monkey.

Mommy liked looking at the historic houses

from where she was sitting.  

Up on the slide.

After we put the baby to bed, we read "Our Tree

Named Steve" book.  This book never gets old.

Last time Mommy and Oliver read it together, 

Mommy cried when the lightening struck and

then the sweet dad made it into a tree house.

(Mommy is very sensitive, just so you know.)  

But, it was good to show Oliver that its okay

 for readers to react to their reading in anyway they 

feel like.  That is what make reading so special.  

Mommy's other favorite part of the book.  (Mommy 

likes that strong sweet tree.)  

September

Mommy can't believe it is already September.  Wow!  Oliver is growing taller, Fall is almost here, our daycare is starting to get busy again (yay!), and we are very happy in our home.  We have been here exactly a year now!  Mommy loves our beautiful home and has learned so much this past year.  

Mommy's favorite quote about home:

"The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned."

~Maya Angelou~

Mommy loves making our home special for Oliver, herself, and our daycare families.  It is nice to see people feel at home and comfortable here.

"In the seeds of an apple there is an orchard."

Mommy is kind of looking forward to when the leaves

change and then fall this year.  She will be ready

this time with her rake!

So glad our numbers were found, thanks

to that rat!

September is National Preparedness Month!